What a glorious day ot go to a beeyard, and one in gorgeous country...This particular beeyard is about 5 milesfrom my home, it is on an organic dairy farm and surround on one side by organic farm...the area of the yard is still a bit on the wild side, there was a pond close by...lots of blackberry blooming, poppys..wildflowers.

Charles has about 16 hives they are not piled high with supers, he really doesn't care about the honey, he harvests pollen...the pollen was incredible, all colors even a beautiful lavender color, fresh and tasty. He uses mostly SBB's or no bottoms. The no bottoms have an entrance hole near the top of the hive body. he does not treat his bees with anything. He uses foundationless frames he will put a starter strip of old comb which he fastens with melted wax...he showed up beautiful new comb...as well as an old piece of comb whereby the cells were certainly small...

Even though he keeps this way, he still looses colonies...Darwinistic I suppose...I am hoping to work more closely with him as he inspects his hives, so that I can "see" what to do...I am so grateful to have an SBB on my hive and that you all are here to offer this information...

Again, thank you so much for sharing. I would love to learn whatever you learn. I'll be getting my hives in soon. I'm totally excited about working with the bees and feel calm and confident about hanging out with them... but I'm concerned that I don't know enough about recognizing a disease or something that I should know about. Like what if they are hungry and I don't know it. I want to let them just "bee" bees... but if I start brand new hives... I'm not sure when to feed and when to let them just gather. I feel like a new parent! :? I appreciate all your sharing and will continue to look for posts from you. Thanks! ~Laurie

Sharon, what a lucky woman you are. It sounds like you took a walk on the "calming" side, not the wild side. Consider yourself very fortunate that this gentleman is taking you under his wing. You will be able to learn lots from a very seasoned beekeeper, first hand, hands on.

One wish that I would have loved to come true when I first began beekeeping, would have been that I had a mentor that was close by, that I could help to work the hives and learn so many hands on stuff that I had to all learn by myself. But, this was the school of hard knocks, and I would never turn back time. I would not be the person I am today if history was any different.

Have fun working with Charles, it sounds like a peaceful place in time. Great day, great life. Cindi

Logged

There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

I am so sorry I took so long in replying to your personal message about Charles Martin Simon. I finally got around to reading an article by him and I want to read more. He definitely has a philosophy about beekeeping that I can relate to. I am trying to figure out now how to go foundationless. I will start slowly with one frame at a time, and see how it all goes. I certainly have enough support on this forum to get through it.

Thank you for all the nice things you say about me. How is the weather down your way???Here we have finally cooled off a bit - high 80's, low 50's. I just know the 100's are coming soon.

I have been nursing my sick hive back to health. Believe it or not, it is looking so much better these days and I have high hopes for this little hive. I have been feeling so much better these days, and I am just enjoying watching the bees foraging on lavender plants. The monster sunflowers are coming soon and I can't wait to see the bees on them. They drink from the pond, to which I add fresh water every day and I enjoy just sitting and watching them drink.

Take care and thanks again for the info. You are extremely lucky to be able to work with him.

I am totally following Linda T. from Atlanta and using small cell wax foundation from Dadant. I have made starter strips which I fastened with beeswax into the frames I already had. (all of this on Linda's bee blog)

I still did not get around to introducing them into the hives as yet. This Saturday for sure. Been so busy.

I will try to replace a few frames here and there in the brood nest, Hopefully it will work out ok and I can do this.

Yes you are far away from me and I wish it were cooler here. High 90's now, but at least not 100's.